The present invention relates to a toothed belt, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved toothed belt not only for OA ("Office Automation") related equipments, such as a printer, a plotter, and a copying machine, which are sensitive to dust and noise, but also industrial machines in general.
Conventionally, a toothed belt comprises a back rubber embedding a tensile body, and tooth rubber, wherein a tooth sheet is glued on an exposed tooth surface of the tooth rubber. The toothed belt is adapted to be looped around a periphery of the toothed pulley.
As the toothed belt is driven by the toothed pulley, the tooth sheet thereof is gradually worn away. For that reason, as for the conventional toothed belt, the tooth sheet in which rubber including carbon black is impregnated into the same rubber as the tooth rubber or the back rubber, or the tooth sheet in which rubber including graphite is impregnated thereinto has been used.
However, according to the toothed belt wherein the tooth sheet in which rubber including carbon black is impregnated thereinto, when the toothed belt contacts with the pulley while driving, a great amount of wear powder of the toothed belt and noise are generated. On the other hand, according to the toothed belt wherein the tooth sheet in which rubber including graphite is impregnated thereinto, indeed generation of the wear powder thereof and noise can, to some extent, be reduced, but it is still not sufficient to nullify the foregoing problem, because under the specific circumstances some machines are sensitive to dust and noise.
Further, according to such conventional toothed belt, the wear powder, containing carbon black or graphite, looks black, when scattered around the toothed belt and the pulley, thereby degrading the appearance therearound.